MONOLITH - MONOLITH - 1998

MONOLITH are an American trio from New Jersey mixing ELP, UK, TRIUMVIRAT, REFUGEE and URIAH HEEP influences. Although their lone album was released in 1998, the band originated way back in 1977 when keyboardist Bill Hamer wrote an ambitious musical suite called "The Apocalypse Concept". An avid ELP, UK and KING CRIMSON fan, he found a couple of allies in like-minded drummer Ron Mattia and bassist/vocalist Gordon Winfield. They did record his 17-minute suite on a demo tape; however, this being smack in the middle of the punk era, their timing was completely off and although the band tried to keep up with the times by writing a few 80ish style songs, they just couldn't survive. In 1995, however, Musea agreed to re-release the album. So Hamer and Mattia got together and re-recorded it using state-of-the-art equipment.

Don't let the seemingly metal sounding name fool you: MONOLITH make pure art rock that rides on Bill Hamer's 70's-style bombastic keyboards - the listener will soon notice how good a student he is of both Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. The pièce de résistance of the album is, of course, his 1977 musical suite subdivided into six complex yet easily digestible tracks, mostly reminiscent of ELP and KING CRIMSON. The only guitar you'll hear on the whole album, however, appears on the final two tracks, courtesy of guest artist Steve D'Acutis; a little out of place, these ASIA-like tracks are more of the AOR variety.

Should appeal to fans of the ARS NOVA keyboard sound, as well as to fans of ELP and Rick Wakeman.
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